Gò0dNews from the Pastor’s Desk Would You Rest if Your Life Depended on It?
W
by Matthew Dennis
hen the pandemic hit our shores, my life
Isaiah 30:15 tells us, “This is what the Sovereign
was forced to slow down. As someone in
Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘Only in returning to
ministry, slowing down can be incredibly
me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and
challenging for me. Pastors tend to be terrible at the
confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it.’”
spiritual discipline of rest. In general, American culture is
That last line has been incredibly convicting for me. Are
fast-paced and busy. Many of us like being in the hustle
we willing to put away our facades? Would we rest if we
and bustle and tend to place our identity in what we
believed our lives depended on it? The good news is that
do, rather than in who God says we are. Because of this,
although slowing down can be scary, God has so much
slowing down can be incredibly frightening.
better that He wants to give to you. As a good, perfect
Why is this? Peter Scazzero states, in The Emotionally Healthy Leader, that everyone has a shadow, and this shadow is defined as the “accumulation of untamed emotions, less-thanpure motives, and thoughts that, while largely unconscious, strongly influence and shape your behaviors. It is the damaged but mostly hidden version of who you are” (page 55). When the world slowed down, I found myself changing on the inside as the business that once drowned out my inner man was no longer there. God began
Heavenly Father, He wants to give good things to His
revealing wounds He wanted to heal, as well as areas in
children, but we have to do our part and get up. Just like
my life where I was getting a false sense of security and
the paralyzed man at the pool, Jesus is asking us, “Do you
identity. He wanted to replace those areas with Himself
want to get well?” (John 5:6). Go to that silent place, slow
as the source of my self-worth.
down, and ask the Father what He wants to remove and
Likewise, in the quiet place, God will reveal to you
give you in return. Ask Him what He thinks of you and
what motivates you. After that, He will begin cutting
how He wants you to see Him. You very well may face
things out of you; and like surgery, the cutting and
brokenness, but your brokenness is the bridge to your
healing will hurt because there is a process and recovery
destiny, and God wants to make something beautiful out
time. However, if that surgery is not done, our shadows
of it.
will slowly kill us on the inside. Many of us will wake have been if only we had stepped into everything God had planned for us.
6 // January 2022
About The Author
up one day and have to face the man or woman we could Matthew Dennis is currently serving as a children’s pastor and one of the college ministry leaders at The Grace Point in Cleveland, TN. You can follow him at awakenpurpose.wordpress.com.
